Sini Ann Mathews, mother of Sherin Mathews, who was found dead last month in a culvert was arrested Thursday on charges of child endangerment.
Richardson, Texas, police found that she and her husband Wesley Mathews left the 3-year-old home alone the night before she was reported missing.
They went out with their biological daughter Oct. 6, leaving Sherin Mathews behind because she refused to drink her milk, police said.
Sini Mathews was arrested about 3 p.m. Thursday after her attorney brought her to the Richardson police station, Dallas News reported
She is being held in the Richardson jail on a charge of abandoning or endangering a child, a state jail felony. Bail has been set at $250,000.
‘This all stems from this ongoing investigation with Sherin. It's sort of a culmination of everything we've got so far,’ police Sgt. Kevin Perlich said. ‘It was our decision that now was an appropriate time to make an arrest.’
Detectives determined Wesley and Sini Mathews went to a restaurant in Garland with their 4-year-old daughter, leaving Sherin home alone, place her in imminent danger of death, bodily injury, or physical or mental impairment, according to the arrest warrant affidavit (see below).
Cell phone records confirmed the phones of both were at the restaurant that evening, as did a receipt that showed only one child's meal had been purchased, the affidavit stated. The waiter confirmed that only one child was at the meal.
In an interview with detectives on Oct. 23, Wesley Mathews said that he and his wife had left Sherin, whom the couple had adopted from India, alone while the rest of the family went to eat dinner.
He said that Sherin was refusing to drink her milk and he became impatient, and decided to go to dinner without her, the affidavit stated.
Wesley Mathews told detectives he told his wife to go with him and their older daughter and Sini did so without being coerced, police documents state.
When they returned more than an hour later, Sherin Mathews was still in the kitchen, the affidavit stated.
Police continue to investigate Sherin's death and pieces of evidence are still being evaluated. The Dallas County medical examiner has not yet ruled on the girl's cause of death.
Sini Mathews may face different or additional charges down the road, Perlich said.
Wesley Mathews told police on Oct. 7 that he had sent his adoptive daughter outside to an alley near their house about 3 a.m. because she refused to drink her milk.
He later changed his story to say he "physically assisted" Sherin with her milk, and admitted to removing her body from the home after she choked and stopped breathing, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
Authorities searching less than a mile from the Mathewses' home on Oct. 22 found the body of a small child later identified as Sherin in a culvert. Her body was identified two days later.
Wesley Mathews, 37, remains in the Dallas County Jail on a charge of causing serious bodily injury to a child. Bail has been set at $1 million.
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